My father kept interrupting my shoveling that day, repeatedly calling my attention to the ocean and the eastern sky. I seem to recall two large ships visible near the horizon. I have a very clear memory of a U.S. Navy B-17 making several low-altitude passes just offshore.
What I remember most, though, is my dad hoisting me up and pointing excitedly at a wispy trail of smoke arcing over the Atlantic to our southeast. Leading that trail was a bright orange speck.On May 5, 1961, Alan B. Shepard became the first American in space. I was there -- albeit at a tender age and from a distance of 50 miles -- to see that Mercury-Redstone 3 propel Freedom 7 into history, and I remember.
